MANASHAMANGAL
First Show Held : August 11, 2016, 6.30 PM at EZCC, Purbasree, Salt lake,Kolkata,
Duration of Play : 2 Hrs 10 Mins (With an interval of 10 Mins.)
The story of Manasamangal begins
with the conflict of the merchant Chandradhar with Manasa and ends with
Chandradhar becoming an ardent devotee of Manasa. Chandradhar is a worshipper
of Shiva, but Manasa hopes that she can win over Chand to her worship. But, far
from worshipping her, Chand refuses to even recognize her as a deity. Manasa
takes revenge upon Chand by destroying six of his ships at sea and killing his six
sons. Chand revived and set
out on another sea voyage to rebuild his business. ButagainManasa swept him
ashore from the mainstream of life. Chand became a beggar and lost everything
but still worshiped only Shiva and refusing to bow to Manasa.
A son was born to himnamedLakshmindara.Chand returned to
Champak Nagar and managed to rebuild his life. Chand arranged marriage of
Lakhindara with Behula. In spite of all precautions, Manasa had her way — a
snake, sent by her, killed Lakshmindara. The rest of the story is a tale of how
Behula combated against all odds and adversitiesand finally succeeded in bring back
Lakhindara in life. Chand
could not forgive the goddess for all the suffering he had to go through. He
offered her flowers with the left hand and turned his face away from her image.
From then on Chand and his family lived in peace and prosperity.
Director’s Note
Manasamangal is basically the tale of
oppressed humanity. Chandradhar and Behula have been portrayed as two strong
and determined characters at a time when ordinary human beings were subjugated
and humiliated. The epic brings out the caste divisions and the conflicts
between Aryans and non-Aryans. The conflict between human beings and the
goddess brings out the social discriminations of society, as well as the
conflict between Aryans and non-Aryans. Shiva, whom Chand worshipped, was
originally not an Aryan god, but over time was elevated to that position.
Manasa's victory over Chand suggests the
victory of the indigenous or non-Aryan deity over the Aryan god. However, even
Manasa is defeated by Behula. The play thus suggests not only the victory of
the non-Aryan deity over the Aryan god, but also the victory of the human
spirit over the powerful goddess. Manasamangal is also remarkable for its
portrayal of Behula who epitomises the best in Indian womanhood, especially the
Bengali woman's devotion to her love.
Nandipat
has been working in the performing art field for the last 37 years. Ever since
its inception, the troupe never created any musical play. Besides, Manasamangal
has a strong cultural flavor of Bengal in epic format, which has every
possibility of expressing localized folk-art form. Moreover, this is a story of
humanity and battle against power politics. Thus I felt the necessity of
disseminating the message of true power of tolerance and the fighting spirit of
Behula in today’s generation.
Credit
Play : Ujjwal Chattopadhyay
Scenic design :
Sandip Suman Bhattacharya
Music :
Subhadip Guha
Lighting design : Soumen Chakraborty
Costume design :
Poushali & Sanmitra
Make-up :
Md.
Ali
Choreographer : Deb Kumar Pal
Direction :
PROKASH
BHATTACHARYA
Cast
Sanjita Mukherjee
|
Manasha
|
Monalisa Chatterjee
|
Behula
|
Sarbani Bhattacharya
|
Sanaka
|
Poulami Banerjee
|
Narrator
|
SrimoyeeMitra
|
Kalnagini
|
Bani Das
|
Chandi
|
Sikha Sarkar
|
Neta
|
Mandira
|
Narrator
|
Jayanti Saha
|
Amala
|
Shankar Mukherjee
|
Shay Bena
|
Shilajit Naskar
|
Jagati
|
Triguna Shankar Manna
|
Lakhindara
|
Sukhendu Prasad Bangal
|
God
|
Shankar Mukherjee
|
Goda
|
RajdeepChakraborty
|
Viswakarma
|
Pintu Das
|
Dhanwantari
|
BimalChakraborty
|
Chand Saudagar
|
SayanDebnath
|
Narrator
|
Sanjib Chowdhury
|
Nera
|
Shirshendu Sarkar
|
Narrator
|
IshanjitDey
|
God
|
Arka Banerjee
|
God
|
Pintu Das
|
Baidya
|
Biplab Naha Biswas
|
Lord Shiva
|
Ashis Das
|
Bonkoraj Khuro
|
Sandip Suman Bhattacharya
|
Indra
|
